The Hindu Business Line : No renegotiating contracts: SET Max

New Delhi March 27 Sony will not renegotiate any contract, or offer advertisers compensatory spots in the light of the Indian cricket team's debacle at the World cup. "These are professional contracts signed by top clients in the country, and they have to be honoured. We don't control the fortunes of the Indian cricket team," said Mr Rohit Gupta, Executive Vice-President, Sales, SET.

"Warm-up matches are not even valuated. Advertisers can waive off at least three-fourths of their ad spend," says a senior business planner of a leading agency.

Top advertisers, including Pepsi, Reebok, Nike, ITC and LG among others are believed to have paid Rs 40-45 crore for slots in the World Cup; Sony offers a more modest figure of an average between Rs 20-30 crore.

Advertisers and media managers are believed to be bargaining hard. And hope to make some kind of adjustments through airtime on the channel later in the year. However, the channel will have none of it. "There will be no negotiations. No one paid me extra when India made it to the finals of the last World Cup," said Mr Gupta.

Everybody agrees India's performance has never been that bad. It's never been a gamble and advertisers and the channel, just like the large Indian audience never doubted the team's entry into the Super 8 of the World Cup tournament. Sony, which had set aside about between 5-10 per cent of its inventory for the Super 8 matches, is not likely to find any buyers for them now. The spots, which it hoped to sell at a premium, will now play promos of its own shows, says Mr Gupta.

Mr Srinivasan K. Swamy, Chairman of R.K. Swamy/ BBDO and also President of the AAAI, commenting on the IBF-AAAI media statement, said that advertisers are unhappy that such a stance has been formally taken.

"While we have said what we have said, advertisers will exert pressure, and channels may give in somewhat for the sake of long term relationships."